Thursday, April 05, 2007

Romney Asks for Marriage Totalitarianism

On the campaign sidewalks, it's not the springtime storms that are slippery, it's Willard Mitt Romney's oozing smarminess. Our own Cap'n Brylcreem is exuding again, this time in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Even though he has been, if you pardon the expression, snugly in bed with same-sex marriage here in Massachusetts, he has long been trying to distance himself from that. Now, he would take his incredibly clumsy disgrace over his mishandling of the hoary laws forbidding marriage to out of staters whose home jurisdictions would not have joined the couples. According to the Union Leader, the Cap'n is calling for the un-passable federal amendment banning same-sex marriage. It's all for show and a play for the approval of the most simple-minded voters. Yet, he's never been about candor or compassion or fairness.

The catalyst was Gov. Deval Patrick's joining with the heads of both houses of the legislature to call for the repeal of the anti-comity laws. They were passed nearly a century ago to prevent out-of-state interracial couples from marrying and pulled out from that cesspool to do the same to homosexual couples. No law with such an infamous background and nefarious aims deserves to continue.

Yet, the Cap'n understands he is known as the gay-marriage governor. That's with good reason, he tacitly supported SSM or civil unions, and he refused to lead in or even participate in framing the debate or resolving the post-Goodridge issues.

Instead of being honorable, he turned to fear mongering again. He told the horrifying tale of hoards of homosexuals hieing to Hingham to wed. From there, like so many vampires, they would fly to distant states and suck the blood out of marriage. They would sue for recognition of their legal Massachusetts status.

Even the Cap'n seems to realize there is no wall tall enough to keep SSM couple in Massachusetts or would be ones out. He blithely pretends to ignore the reality of the many thousands of existing married SS couples. Land of Goshen, what would a fearful nation do if some of them escaped West of the Hudson?

Way up town, he said, "As the governor of Massachusetts having seen the advent of same-sex marriage in my state, and recognizing that with the new governor, people are going to be coming to Massachusetts, getting married in Massachusetts and then going home to their home states, it strikes me that you have to have a national standard."

This actually underlies one of the Cap'n's greatest political problems. Observers are quite right to note that many Americans are confused by and wary of his Mormonism. Far more fundamental to his disconnect from the larger voter base is his seeming lack of understanding of and appreciation for federalism and states rights.

Even after then President Bill Clinton's infamy of DOMA, the U.S. Congress did not and would not pass a federal marriage amendment. Far too many lawmakers and their constituents deplore such central control over local matters. The Cap'n likely wants to appear the most conservative of Republican candidates, but he's probably really blowing it on this one.